“The most fundamental freedom that we enjoy as citizens in a democracy is the right to vote in a federal election, free and fair and without interference.”

Interim Liberal leader Bob Rae told CTV Sunday that he knows of 27 Liberal ridings that received calls and expects that number to grow by Monday.

“What inevitably happens is that people will look back at what they thought was an isolated incident in their riding and then they begin to understand that it may have been part of some sort of larger pattern,” Rae said.

On Saturday, Rae told reporters that voter suppression tactics, including a pattern of harassing phone calls, were a factor in the Liberal party’s defeat in the May 2 election. “I have no doubt at all that it contributed to the defeat of a number of candidates,” he said.

“I think when you get as many ridings coming forward as we’ve seen now, you can’t just say it’s an isolated incident or an isolated case,” he added.

“This is not an isolated problem. It’s becoming a very disturbing pattern, which we can see right across the country, not just in a few ridings.”

Under the Elections Act, it is illegal to tell voters to go to a wrong or non-existent polling station.

“It just isn’t good enough for the Conservatives to say they didn’t know anything about it,” said Rae. “That defies all credibility. The notion that one person would be responsible for these robocalls.”

Related

In the meantime, Rae says the party is considering calling for a number of byelections or even pursing legal action.

“Dirty tricks are not permissible at anytime. They are not permissible in election campaigns,” he said.

On Friday, Rae sent a letter to House of Commons Speaker Andrew Scheer, asking him to allow an emergency debate on the matter when Parliament resumes Monday.

But interim federal NDP leader Nycole Turmel says approval for such a debate is unlikely because it is not the responsibility of the federal government to probe these kinds of situations.

Instead, she urged for a thorough investigation by the RCMP and Elections Canada.

“It is really sad for the election process,” said Turmel in Toronto. “This doesn’t help people who don’t vote, to come back and believe in the election process.”

On Friday, Postmedia News and the Ottawa Citizen reported evidence of a “systematic voter-suppression campaign” against Liberals in tight ridings during last May’s federal election.

This campaign consisted of harassing phone calls targeting Liberal voters in 14 ridings — the majority of which were in southern Ontario.

Transcript of a bogus call sent to a voter in Guelph on federal election day, May 2, 2011.

“This is an automated message from Elections Canada. Due to a projected increase in voter turnout, your poll location has been changed. Your new voting location is at the Old Quebec Street Mall, at 55 Wyndham Street North. Once again, your new poll location is at the Old Quebec Street Mall, at 55 Wyndham Street North. If you have any questions, please call our hotline at 1-800-443-4456. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. (French version recorded in another woman’s voice follows.)”

Liberal supporters say the repeated calls usually came during dinner, late at night or early in the morning from people claiming to represent the local Liberal candidate.

Calls also were placed to voters with Jewish-sounding names during the Saturday Sabbath and in one riding with a South Asian candidate, voters received phone calls from someone imitating a Pakistani accent.

Those who received the calls say they got them repeatedly and that the person on the other line spoke to them rudely.

Conservative MP Dean Del Mastro told CTV Sunday that his riding also received offensive live calls from people alleging to be with his campaign.

He joined the chorus calling on Elections Canada to investigate the issue.

“Let’s get to the bottom of this,” he said.

“Everyone deserves answers, including the Conservative Party of Canada.”

Under the Elections Act, it is illegal to tell voters to go to a wrong or non-existent polling station.